Microsoft has a tradition of using massive strategy memos to set a new course or clarify the company’s direction, and CEO Satya Nadella continued the practice this morning with a 3,200-word missive to the company’s entire workforce.

The memo lays out the company’s vision for a “mobile-first and cloud-first world,” using data and cloud computing to empower customers and reinvent productivity — echoing the themes that Nadella has been talking about since taking the top job earlier this year.

But Nadella also outlines a new effort to unshackle the company’s product groups with streamlined decision-making that lets them be more responsive to customers and trends in the market, but also more accountable inside the company. He writes …

We will streamline the engineering process and reduce the amount of time and energy it takes to get things done. You can expect to have fewer processes but more focused and measurable outcomes. You will see fewer people get involved in decisions and more emphasis on accountability. Further, you will see investments in two new or combined functions: Data and Applied Science and Software Engineering. Each engineering group will have Data and Applied Science resources that will focus on measurable outcomes for our products and predictive analysis of market trends, which will allow us to innovate more effectively. Software Engineering will evolve so that information can travel more quickly, with fewer breakpoints between the envisioning of a product or service and a quality delivery to customers. In making these changes we are getting closer to the customer and pushing more accountability throughout the organization.

That’s easier said than done, but Nadella has a unique opportunity here, in his honeymoon phase, to help Microsoft change its culture to bring innovations to market faster and shed its reputation of releasing “me, too” products after others gain traction.

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Comments

woan

We want to be like Google?

balls187

Your share holders want you to.

the truth

this is more “blah, blah, blah” using the words of Amazon “obsess about the customer” bullshit. unfortunately, instead of passing the buck, the CEO should demonstrate he has the balls to confront cultural issues at Microsoft. People do what they are rewarded to do. If you do “obsess about the customer” and get crossways with internal politics, why should you put your head on the chopping block? Also, like others have mentioned, Microsoft is losing because of their obsession with internal politics and their off-shoring and H1-Bing. The leaders in cloud: Google and Amazon innovated because they had a high percentage of full time employees. You don’t innovate or confront bad decisions if you are beholden to your employer for your visa in a country. You don’t rock the boat. You find a sponsor and adhere your lips to their ass. Unfortunately for sustained technical and design leadership, the dream of cheap labor, temp labor while the kings at the top have real jobs will kill a company. Microsoft had every advantage to lead in mobile before Apple and they blew it. Jobs had the balls to confront internal politics and to keep talent inhouse and hired. Microsoft is on the slow boat to decline. They’ve used an old play book again and again, refusing to change internally. A memo telling people to be zippy is not going to do anything.

http://www.bellevuefineart.com/ panacheart

Perhaps the final transition from a start-up software company to a giant blue chip commodity business. I hope they succeed because they provide a lot of jobs in the Northwest, even if they don’t pay taxes, which they largely don’t.